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<p>The weeklong Crankworx mountain bike festival in Whistler British Columbia opened with a fat-tire crit cross-country race. Late in the contest, Giant’s Carl Decker gunned it for a prime and then kept on trucking, catching the remaining racers by surprise, and eventually winning the race with not a chaser in sight.
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<p>Crankworx this year revived the Canadian Open Enduro. The multi-stage race takes riders on a mix of cross-country and bike park trails, including the new Top of the World, which descends from Whistler’s summit. Racers are timed only on the descents, but they must pedal between stage starts within time limits. Because most of the transfers are uphill, the event requires XC levels of fitness in addition to downhill skills.
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<p>While the Joyride slopestyle remains Crankworx&rsquo;s marquee event, the festival&rsquo;s three downhill races (Garbonzo, Air DH and Canadian Open) rival any World Cup contest. The Garbonzo DH track descends 3,400 vertical feet through Whistler&rsquo;s bike park and links some of the resort&rsquo;s more technical trails, including Original Sin, In Deep, Duffman and World Cup DH. The 4.35-mile long course is three to four times the length of a typical World Cup race.</p>
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<p>Racing on Devinci&rsquo;s new carbon downhill bike, Steve Smith descends a steep&mdash;too steep to even walk&mdash;rock roller on In Deep about halfway down the course. The Canadian World Cupper won the event with a time of 12:33.27&mdash;that translates to an average speed of nearly 21mph over some of the most beat down, rock- and root-infested trails on the mountain.</p>
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<p>At the 2012 (Un)Official Whip-Off World Championships, Thomas Vanderham sails sideways over one of the towering tabletop jumps on Whistler’s Crab Apple Hits trail. The event was the brainchild of mountain bike photographer Sven Martin. Riders fly over the jumps—some are 30 feet long—whipping the rear end of their bike sideways. Those with the best whip move to the next round until the rabid fans determine a winner.
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<p>Tyler McCaul may be overshadowed as a slopestyle rider by his big brother Cam, but he shined at the Whip-Off Worlds. He bested the field, including big whippers Thomas Vanderham, Brendan Fairclough and Chris Kovarik, to take home the $1,000 prize and some rare bragging rights in the McCaul household.
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<p>The Air DH tosses riders down Whistler’s iconic A-Line. The jump trail is the most popular run on the mountain and features more than 50 tabletops. The fastest riders pre-jump each lip, scrubbing over the hits with their tires just off the ground, which is seconds faster than floating high into the air. Steve Smith took his second win of the week at the race. Look for him to roll into the World Champs two weeks from now with a boatload of confidence.
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<p>Since the advent of the unofficial "Pump Track Worlds" at the 2009 World Championships in Canberra, Australia, pump track races have become wildly popular competitions. Few places do it better than Whistler, which held this year’s contest near the Olympic Plaza in the heart of the village. The format is simple: Two riders race head-to-head in a single-elimination format. Pro and amateur riders from any discipline can enter and the fastest 32 qualifiers move on to the main event. Large crowds and a beer garden on one side of the course created an electric atmosphere.
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<p>Crankworx also features a "Giant” Dual Slalom, which is like a traditional dual-slalom, except that bike maker Giant sponsors it. The event carries an $8,500 cash purse and attracts some of the world’s top dual and downhill racers. Australian phenom Troy Brosnan, who races for Monster Energy Specialized, beat out Luca Shaw in finals. It was Brosnan’s first race since bruising his spleen at a downhill race in Leogang, Austria, in May.
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<p>The Joyride slopestyle contest is the main attraction at Crankworx. Held Saturday evening, it attracted more than 25,000 fans who descended on Whistler&rsquo;s base village to watch riders spin, flip and whip on a course that featured step-down jumps, drops, wall rides, hip jumps and even a 60-foot gap. Here, Jack Fogelquist tailwhips over one of the first jumps.</p>
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This year, high winds added to the challenge, and knocked several competitors off their line&mdash;and out of the competition. Despite the risks, riders return each year to the course&mdash;aptly named the Boneyard. The $25,000 prize purse helps, but so does the exposure. Winning Joyride propels a rider to the top of the sport, and usually leads to some lucrative sponsorship deals.

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<p>Right out of the gate, Joyride competitors encountered a 15-foot step-down. Riders tailwhipped, spun 360s and even back-flipped over the drop. From there, the features only got bigger, leading up to the final 30-foot drop. Here Casey Groves, competing despite a recent death in his family, floats a smooth 360. He would finish sixth. </p>

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<p>French rider Yannick Granieri corks a 360 off a hip jump midway down the course. Like many of the riders, especially the Europeans with a dirt-jump background, Granieri chose to compete on a hardtail. He finished eleventh in the competition.
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<p>Defending champion and Whistler local Brandon Semenuk had a rough Joyride. He's a brilliant tactician, and is rumored to have reproduced the massive 60-foot Boneyard gap jump at his training grounds so he could practice on the feature. But Semenuk never even reached the jump during the competition. In round one, a botched landing taco’d his rear wheel so badly he couldn’t finish the course. In round two, a gust of wind pushed him off line on the course’s first jump. Just like that, the 2011 Joyride winner had been knocked out of the event. A fierce competitor, Semenuk immediately left the venue, too distraught to even watch the finals.
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<p>Belgium rider and eventual Joyride winner Thomas Genon double whips the course’s hip jump. His first run was smooth and clean, and featured enough flips, tailwhips and 360s to secure the relatively unknown rider a surprise victory. Genon had few sponsors before the contest, but it’s a safe bet that he will be inking some lucrative deals in the coming months.
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<p>Crankworx concludes with the Canadian Open DH, a World Cup-style downhill race the day after Joyride. Despite a fast run (2:49.44) Mick Hannah was unable to beat a hard-charging Steve Smith, who finished 4 seconds ahead of Hannah. The win gave Smith a Crankworx hat trick—he won all three downhill races to earn the “King of Crankworx” title. Neither rider could escape the taunts from the fanboys lining Heckler’s Rock, though.
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